Seeds for 07/24/2024 - Ask - Matthew 7:7-11
In this series on prayer and scripture, we are following the acronym P.R.A.Y. as a guide for prayer. We are considering scriptures throughout the Bible on each theme. My prayer is that studying scriptures on these themes will give us biblical words to use as our own and simple insights for our praying.
Scripture:
7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!
Observation:
The Sermon on the Mount represents the heart of Jesus’ teaching about what the life of discipleship looks like in the kingdom of God. Much of it regards ethics of the kingdom. Earlier, in chapter six, Jesus shares a model that has become known as the Lord’s Prayer during a lesson about how to practice one’s spiritual devotion with a pure heart. Here, Jesus teaches about asking. Here are a few observations.
First, Jesus is straightforward and simple about asking and receiving. Jesus knew and we know that we don’t always receive exactly what we ask for in prayer—and scripture addresses that too. But this threefold presentation of “ask, seek, knock” emphasizes that we should never lose the simple motivation to ask God, to pursue and persevere in prayer, to contend in prayer. The late Anglican Archbishop William Temple said, “When I pray coincidences happen, and when I don’t they don’t.”
Second, Jesus assures us not about our efforts to pray but about the goodness of the One to whom we pray. He does this by means of a contrast. Do we give our child a rock when they need something to eat? (Cue the Charlie Brown Halloween episode here) Of course not! And God is greater than we are, not only in power but in goodness.
We can trust Him with our asking and He wants us to ask, to seek, and to knock at the door of heaven.
Application:
What is on your heart to ask, seek, and knock about today? Is there anything that keeps you from doing so? When has it been hard to trust God’s goodness for an answer?
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, keep me confident in your goodness, so that I may continually ask, seek, and knock as I bring my prayers to you. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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